It may sound like a language taken from fantasy fiction such as Lord of the Rings, but Globish is a very real phenomenon. In 1995, Jean-Paul Nerrière first used the term to describe a stripped-down version of spoken English. Despite considerable local variations in its character, around 4 billion people can converse in Globish to a limited degree. Globish is the world’s most spoken language (Table 1).
Globish is distinct from the more complex variants of true English that are spoken as official languages in the USA, Australia, Canada and elsewhere. It consists of a very small word store (often no greater than 1,500 words). Because it is a ‘micro-language’ it has a pragmatic (and certainly not poetic) purpose. It gives global citizens the means they need to exchange vital information with one another, such as travel directions or terms of business. Global citizens are people who are routinely involved in global interactions, including:
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